Thursday, October 25, 2012

VENOM by Fiona Paul BLOG TOUR

Venom by Fiona Paul is one
of my favorite reads of this year, and I highly recommend that you read it. Venom
is beautiful, and I want to live in the book. I will save my
gushing for the review that I will post this weekend.

VENOM has all the makings of a novel that
will top readers’ must-read list: sexy characters; high society; midnight
trysts; and a murderer on the loose—all set in Renaissance Venice. Fifteen
year-old Cassandra Caravello is a girl born into the elite world of the
privileged few. Though Cass recognizes her good fortune, she longs to be freed
of her boring life that is mapped out before her, including her engagement to
Luca, her long-distance fiancé. When Cass stumbles upon a dead body one night,
her life quickly takes a turn for the macabre. Soon she is swept up in an
unfamiliar world of mystery, wild romance, secret societies and danger. She
meets the enigmatic Falco, who quickly becomes the object of her desire—however
wrong it may be. Forced to examine who she is and what path she wants her life
to take, Cass must also now question who can be trusted as she realizes that
she, too, is in the killer’s path.

I am so thrilled to be a
part of the blog tour for this lovely book. Fiona wrote a prequel for Venom and
you can find bits of the story on each of the participating blogs.

Venomous

A Secrets of the Eternal Rose short story

By Fiona Paul

The year is 1600 and the streets of Venice, Italy are ripe with
intrigue and danger. In this introduction to the world of Venom,
eighteen-year-old Mariabella has recently elevated herself from the rank of
common prostitute to the status of courtesan, a respected high- class escort
for those men in Venetian society who can afford them. Mariabella steps out to
attend a party on the arm of her powerful new patron, certain that the night
will be filled with glamour, secrets, and adventure.

I lower myself to
the crypt’s roof, arranging my skirts around me in a circle. Batista sits next
to me.

“You look beautiful in the
moonlight,” he says.

I smile. “You look handsome in any
light.”

He chuckles. “Oh, Maria of the
honeyed words.” Slowly, he starts to peel back one of my lacy gloves. He
presses his lips to the crook of my arm, kissing his way from my elbow to my
wrist.

My insides grow warm despite the
cool night air. Just as I am about to close my eyes, a flash of movement
catches my eye. Tugging my arm free of Batista’s embrace, I point toward the
churchyard gate. “Did you see that?” I ask. “I thought...I thought I saw
someone near the gate.”

Batista scans the graveyard.
“Probably a cat,” he says. He pulls my body over into his lap. “Did I tell you
I ordered a present for you?”

My eyes light up. Even though
Batista can’t buy me expensive gifts, I still love his little baubles and
trinkets. “You just painted me that lovely portrait. You didn’t have to get me
anything else so soon.”

“I couldn’t resist.”

I grin into his chest. My hands
trace their way down one of his muscular arms. “What is it?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Tell me.” I scrunch my face into a
pout as I look up at him.

He kisses the top of my forehead.
“You are such a child to me, Maria,” he says softly. “So sweet. So innocent.”

“Not that sweet. And certainly not that innocent,” I say, laughing. I
run my mouth along the outer edge of his hand and kiss each of his fingertips.
I go tense when I see he’s wearing a ring on his middle finger. Silver and red,
with a flower engraved on the face. It’s the same ring Don Zanotta was wearing
at the party—the same symbol I feel I must have seen before.

Batista misinterprets my
fascination. “You and your obsessive love of jewelry,” he says. “It was payment
for some work I did. You may have it if you like.”

The silver is ice cold, even though
Batista’s hand is warm. I slip the ring off his finger and hold it up to the
moonlight, admiring how each of the flower’s six petals are exactly the same
size. The bad feeling passes. The ring is pretty, and must come from an
excellent jeweler if Don Zanotta consents to wear it. “So we are both working
in exchange for jewelry?” I tease, sliding the ring onto the first finger of my
left hand. It’s too big; the silver rotates easily around my knuckle.

Batista tilts my chin upward so that
our eyes meet. “If only your work wasn’t in such high demand,” he says. My
mouth finds his. I caress his hair, letting my fingers make their way down to
the back of his neck. He bites gently on my bottom lip. And then harder. The
pain is sharp and exquisite. I lie back on the smooth stone of the crypt and
pull him toward me.

He smiles. “Not so worried about
getting dirty anymore, I see.” Then he is heavy on top of me, all warm
pressure. The wind, the damp chill of the ocean air, the dead sleeping just
below us, it’s all forgotten. I inhale the scent of grass and the sea that
clings to Batista’s clothing as his hands make their way beneath my bodice. He
tugs at the laces of my stays.

“I almost went insane tonight
watching you dote on another man,” he murmurs between kisses. He grips me
tightly—too tightly.

I reach behind my back and struggle
to unlace to further loosen my stays. “Let’s not talk about him.” Let’s not talk at all.

Fiona Paul lives in the Midwest but travels a lot since she can’t
breathe if she spends too much time away from the ocean. She graduated from
Washington University in St. Louis with a major in psychology and spent a year
teaching English in Seoul, Korea while she was deciding what she wanted to be
when she grew up. Answer: everything. In addition to being a teacher and a
writer, she’s also worked as a sauté cook, sporting goods manager, veterinary
assistant, and registered nurse. When she’s not working, you can usually find
her kayaking, reading, or helping turtles cross the road. Her future goals
include diving with great white sharks and writing more books, not necessarily
in that order. Venom is her first novel.
Visit Fiona online at www.fionapaulbooks.com. Follow her on Twitter: @fionawritesYA